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Why don't you try forearm crutches before the walker? Go from canes to forearm crutches. If you get a sporty pair like SideStix - they don't scream, "I am a gimp". People might say to you, "hey, man, when does your doctor let you get off the crutches?".

Yeah, I go with the forearm crutches. I know I shouldn't be embarrassed, but I've already swallowed a ton of pride needing help from people. The crutches to see, to send a different message than a walker.

I think in general people are very helpful and want to understand. It is hard. I want to do things myself sometimes. It is difficult for people I know, but I don't want to be babied.

Shit, I could get into trouble for saying this...I have beckers MD...I sort of came to this conclusion about my walking over being in a wheelchair.

and I quote: "I'd rather look semi normal scooting around in a wheelchair than look a twat trying to continue the delusion that i can walk normally".

Fuck it, use the walker at home or rent out a basketball court for a few hours to use the walker. If in public use your chair if YOU feel weird about it...BUT and there's always a but...if you wanna use your walker in public everyone else who is weird about it can build a bridge and get over it!.

"The problem with self improvement is knowing when to quit." "Diamond" David Lee Roth.

I'm new here so I don't know if it's okay for me to reply to this post since it's an older one if I shouldn't then this can be deleted.

I'm still in a pretty new phase, no diagnosis yet, but within three years I've gone from numbness and tingling in my legs to no feeling and movement in my legs below the knee and that means I went quickly from running around normally, to walking with AFOs, to walking with AFOs and a rollator to using a wheelchair. It was so difficult for me as I'm in my early thirties and never saw myself having any issues like this. I would go out in public feeling like everyone was watching me and come home and bawl my eyes out and swear I wasn't leaving the house again. That was a pretty rough and vicious cycle because of course I'd go crazy stuck indoors and go out to just start it all up again. Eventually, I stopped caring that people were watching me because I saw things getting harder and harder for myself and knew I wanted to keep being as active in my normal daily life as I possibly could. It didn't stop people from staring at me, it didn't stop me from feeling badly when that happened, but I figured this is where I'm at in life and I've just embraced it and tried to ignore it as much as possible.

When I go out now in a wheelchair people still seem to always be looking, making comments, etc. but I just smile and know that I'm doing the best I can and people just look at those they think are different from them because they don't understand their situations. I still get in a rut sometimes and feel badly but it's not as frequent as it once was and I just let myself have a few hours to be upset and then put it out of my mind and continue on with something that makes me happy.

I hope anyone who is feeling like the original poster can see that it's better to be up and doing as much as you can than to let others make you feel self-conscience and stop you from living your life to the fullest.

Maybe I'm rationalizing, but I just think to myself that the people staring are mostly impressed that, despite whatever injury I might have, I'm out there in a chair pretty much living the same life they are. Usually, once I'm in a conversation, I find that it is what they were thinking. They don't need to know how difficult it can be.